Tuesday, 26 June 2012

I've been making progress on this... slowly but surely. The second butterfly round (with 28 butterfly repeats) took me a while to complete. And it's not a pattern to tat when you're distracted, I've had to do more un-tatting than I care for (which is NONE really! :-)

I was tempted to change the next round because I feel that the following round (which I'm most of the way through) and which is the same as the round after the first butterfly row detracts from the butterflies in my opinion. Those long looped chains make them loose their definition - do you know what I mean? I thought about repeating the same round as below the butterflies instead, thinking this would "frame" them better... maybe? But then I thought it might mean I would have to change all the other rows so then I wasn't so sure I wanted to tackle such a challenge just now.

The only good thing is that if I decide to do the largest doily, it will end on a butterfly row (as it does now, temporarily). This doily is now larger than my largest doily so far which was one of the two Jan Stawasz doilies I've completed.

Sunday, 24 June 2012

Here it is. I hope you like it. Thanks to Krysta, Leah, Marla, Loretta and Fox for their help in test-tatting this pattern.

I said in a previous post that there would be more versions of this bookmark... I did try other versions but none that I'm happy to share with you. I made another in one pass which is closer to the original Quatrain design but it involved a lot of split chains and split rings and I didn't enjoy tatting it.

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

I completed the doily with the flower border. I really love this pattern. So pretty. I have no doubt I shall be tatting this again in the future.

I made holes along my drawn oval (the bits of blue you can see on the edge is the marker I used which is water soluble so will wash away eventually but can still be seen a bit) and then used a crochet and the same green thread to attach the border into the holes I made with my machine. I then folded the extra fabric on the back. The decorative pink stitch keeps the folded edge in place. I used a variegated Sulky which I thought would go well with the colours of the flowers. But a plain, bold pink or green (or yellow or orange for that matter!) would have looked good too.

I found a pretty fabric that has a subtle cream on cream motif through it.

When I last made this edging, it was from another book and the flowers were larger: there were 2 ds between each picot as opposed to just one as here. And the "stalks" were longer (I shortened them here by choice). Both ways look nice.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

I just received another package (which are little treats!) from Jess at Tat-ilicious and her threads are delicious indeed. So I made a quick heart to show off the colours. This is "Serendipity"(thread colour name) and the heart is from the Rainbow Heart Bookmark pattern by Betsy Evans. I am thankful to an In Tatter member for enabling me to discover this pattern. I think it's a very effective little heart.

Sunday, 10 June 2012

I was contacted by a lady from a lace group interested in a bookmark I made for an exchange at In Tatters last year. I had adapted the Quatrain pattern into a bookmark. This involved repeating the centre motif and then making a border. This means cutting, tying, hiding ends... I don't like those jobs! So it started me thinking about the design and how I could keep the idea of Quatrain but adapt it so that the bookmark could be completed in one pass.

After some trial and error, here is what I've come up with so far.

I'm not completely happy with it yet,

but it's a good start.

Or it's one option.

No. 9 of 25-motif challenge

I even tried Jane Eborall's method of throwing a ring off a ring (thank you Jane, you are wonderful!) to get the small rings in the centre of the design but I felt that was quite an advanced technique which some people would not want to tackle. I will probably re-visit it though because I liked the look of it.

The samples below show rings thrown off rings in the centre part of the bookmark:

Here is the original bookmark, which I like a lot

but as I said, it does mean making each element separately.

Well, actually you could do two and two, using split rings.

I may also re-do the top bookmark but adding picots in the centre elements to fill the spaces a bit. I'll also see if I can get a better hang of the thrown rings off rings (TROR? TRR?) because they would be very useful in some circumstances - including here!

Oh wait, wait, I could also use a mock ring to be able to throw a small ring in the centre... mmmm.....

Thursday, 7 June 2012

When I last visited my Mother-in-law, she had a little doily I made for her on her table and I remembered how much I liked these colours together. This is Lizbeth Spring Green with Lizbeth Tropical Punch. The border I chose is similar to the one that was on the original doily but not quite the same as I couldn't remember where I found it the first time. It's a vintage edging that I've seen in a few different old books. I modified it just a little to a shape that appealed to me.

No. 8 of 25-motif challenge

Just can't have my hands idle you know... so a couple of hours on the train yesterday plus a couple of hours watching a film with the children on TV tonight and there you have it. Nearly done.

Monday, 4 June 2012

We spent sometime watching the Jubilee flotilla going down the Thames on TV yesterday, and of course, while I watched, I tatted. And completed the purple hanky edging.

I'm not normally a massive fan of this type of variegated thread...

(in this case, Altin Basak 50)

but I think it looks alright on this handkerchief

complimenting the corner design quite well.

With elderflower and wisteria from the garden.

Tomorrow we shall be going to London to watch the Queen riding from Westminster to Buckingham palace in her golden carriage and enjoying whatever else is going on during the last day of the Jubilee weekend in the capital.

Friday, 1 June 2012

Maria sent me a message asking how I was attaching the lace in the previous post. I took some photos for her and then I thought I might as well post them here too... should they be of interest to any others.

I use a hat pin to make the holes but any large, sharp needle would do.

Here is the hole I just made. I like the holes right on the edge so therewon't be a long line of thread between the hole and the ring.

I'm using 5-5 rings to attach to the hanky. So here are my first 5 stitches made.

Put your hook through the hole and pull a loop.

Loop pulled through, use it to make a normal join.

Here is the join made. Complete the remaining stitches of your ring.

The joins are made with the underside facing so that the large ringsface the right side of the hanky (or you could use FSBS tatting of course). So here it is, from the front.Two sides done, two to go!

And finally, it's the Jubilee Weekend here in the UK,so I thought I would honour the Queen with a bit of nail art...(the flag was painted by my son!)